Don Cummings


Don Cummings is an American playwright, memoirist, screenwriter, author of fiction and essays, actor, and composer. He has acted in over fifty plays and independent features and was a recurring guest star on the sitcom, Dharma & Greg. His critically acclaimed plays have been produced on both coasts: The Water Tribe, A Good Smoke, The Fat of the Land, American Air, What Do Men Live By?, Stark Raving Mad, The Winner, Feed the Children!, Solid Joints and Piss Play is About Minorities So It's Really Important. He has been published in literary journals. His memoir, Bent But Not Broken, was published March 15, 2019 by Heliotrope Books. An Excerpt of Bent But Not Broken was published in Epiphany Literary Journal, Issue # 25.

Don Cummings
Author 2019
BornBronxville, New York, US
ResidenceLos Angeles, California
NationalityAmerican
Alma mater
GenreFiction, Memoir, Plays
PartnerAdam Waring

Background and education

Don Cummings was born in Bronxville, New York, and attended Suffern High School. His parents, Donald Sr. and Janet Rita Porcello Cummings, were active accountants and business managers through retirement. He is married to Adam Waring. He received his BS in biology from Tufts University and attended the two year program of The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre.[1]

Career

Known for his unique voice and truthful, brave characters, actors and audiences are consistently drawn to Cummings' work because of his ability to write forgivingly, comically and deeply about being a human being.

Bent But Not Broken, a memoir of connection, Peyronie's disease and marriage, was published by Heliotrope Books. An excerpt was published in Epiphany Literary Journal.[2][3]

The Water Tribe (full length play) was co-produced by Ensemble Studio Theatre Los Angeles and VS. Theatre Company, directed by Tricia Small, featuring Hannah Prichard, Christopher Reiling, Jayne Taini, Jon Joseph Gentry and Alexandra Daniels. [4][5][6][7][8]

A Good Smoke (full length) originally produced by The Production Company in Los Angeles, was a semifinalist for the Eugene O'Neill theater conference. A Good Smoke had a reading at The Public Theater in New York starring Meryl Streep, Henry Wolfe Gummer, Grace Gummer, Joe Paulik, John Rothman and Debra Monk, directed by Pam MacKinnon and was optioned for Broadway.[9][10]

Whatever Happened to Cousin Mickey? was published in Cagibi, Issue 4.[11]

A Body of Work: The Tour was published by Rain Taxi.[12]

The Body, the Self, a Book was published by Cagibi Express.[13]

The Fat of the Land[14] had a workshop production in Los Angeles at West Coast Ensemble and was presented in New York City in Ensemble Studio Theatre’s Octoberfest directed by Billy Hopkins, featuring Henry Wolfe Gummer. It was produced by The New Theatre at The Theatre District in Los Angeles. The Fat of the Land was one of fifteen finalists for the Kaufman & Hart Prize for New American Comedy awarded by Arkansas Repertory Theatre. Dan Alemshah received The L.A. Ovation Award for best featured actor in a play for his portrayal of the humorous, heartfelt transsexual role of Claudia Vestibule. An excerpt was published in The Coachella Review.

Piss Play is About Minorities so It’s Really Important (one act) was presented as part of the New York Cringe Festival where it received the Golden Pineapple for best play and an acting award for the lead actor.[15]

The Winner (one act) is about the destruction of the earth by rapacious big-oil, was produced at West Coast Ensemble, a finalist for the Heideman Award at Actors Theatre of Louisville and was published in Post Road, Issue #25.

Live Work Space (full length) has had readings at The Road Theater Company, West Coast Ensemble and The Production Company.

American Air, Cummings’ critically acclaimed one-man-show, was presented at Theater/Theatre, The HBO Workspace and The Powerhouse Theatre in Los Angeles, and in part at Soho Repertory Theatre and Ensemble Studio Theatre in New York under the title What Do Men Live By?

Box[16], a short film starring Marsha Dietlein Bennett, Lou Liberatore, Dylan Chalfy, Andreas Damm and Mink Stole, shot on the Sony F65 camera, was an official selection at The Dam Short Film Festival, New Film Makers New York Festival, Twin Rivers Media Festival and The Toronto Independent film festival. It was picked up for distribution by TVShortsInternational.

Mr. Cummings has appeared in readings at Comedy Central’s Sit N’ Spin, Skylight Books, Book Soup, Tell It!, True Story, Personal Space, A Different Light Bookstore in Los Angeles and Art by the Ferry in New York. He has been a judge for Literary Death Match.

As an actor, Mr. Cummings was a recurring guest star on the television series Dharma & Greg as the annoyed waiter and has appeared on many other television series including: Mad About You, Lucky, Still Standing, and Half & Half. Film appearances include the lead role in the Houston Film Festival winner, The Appointment, directed by Todd Wade, Noho, directed by David Schrader and in over fifty plays and musicals on both coasts and in regional theaters including Macbeth in Macbeth, Mr. Bungee in A New Brain, Berenger in Exit the King, Ray in Lone Star, and The Man in Alan Ball’s Power Lunch.

As a composer and musician, Mr. Cummings received the LA WEEKLY Award for Best Revival Production for his arrangement and musical direction of Frank Galati’s The Grapes of Wrath. He composed and performed the music for I’m Really Different (Now)! at Largo in Los Angeles, alongside comedians Karen Kilgariff and Sarah Silverman.

Mr. Cummings is a graduate of Tufts University with a BS in Biology, a graduate of the two year program of The Neighborhood Playhouse School of the Theatre, a member of The Dramatists Guild of America, The Authors Guild, The Ensemble Studio Theatre Playwrights Unit, SAG-AFTRA and Actors Equity Association. He is a member and on the advisory board of Ensemble Studio Theatre/Los Angeles and VS. Theatre Company. Originally from the Hudson Valley, Mr. Cummings lives in Los Angeles with his husband, Adam Waring.

Books and Essays

Bent but Not Broken[2][3] published by Heliotrope Books, 2019.

What Ever Happened to Cousin Mickey? [11] published by Cagibi, Issue 4.

A Body of Work: The Tour[17] published by Rain Taxi.

The Body, The Self, A Book[13] published by Cagibi Express.

Plays
  • The Water Tribe
  • A Good Smoke
  • The Fat Of The Land
  • The Winner
  • Piss Play Is About Minorities, So It’s Really Important
  • American Air
  • Stark Raving Mad
  • Feed The Children!
  • Solid Joints
  • Live Work Space
  • Exempt
  • The Horse Latitudes
  • Don't Touch the Orangutan

Films

Box

Television Appearances

Half & Half (UPN)

Still Standing (CBS)

Lucky (FX)

Dharma & Greg (ABC)

Fourplay (Pilot) (CBS)

Mad About You (NBC)

You Decide (Pilot)

gollark: Perhaps brain scans.
gollark: Hmm, interesting question.
gollark: People like to *say* "O NOES, Google has done [EVIL AND/OR ANNOYING AND/OR HOSTILE TO USER ACTION 1051259172589]" but so few actually do anything about it.
gollark: Perhaps Google is experimenting to see how much they can annoy users without a significant amount actually leaving.
gollark: Clearly their AI is just optimizing for somewhat short term ad revenue at the expense of all else.

References
  1. Wood, Jeff (2011-12-01). "A Conversation With Don Cummings". The Coachella Review. Retrieved 2012-01-06.
  2. BENT BUT NOT BROKEN by Don Cummings | Kirkus Reviews.
  3. Brody, Jane E. (2019-02-11). "A New Treatment for a Painful Penis Curvature". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  4. Stuff, Heidi Mastrogiovanni-Talkin' About Stuff She's Written 'n' (2020-01-20). "A CONVERSATION WITH PLAYWRIGHT/WRITER/ACTOR DON CUMMINGS". Better Lemons. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  5. VS. Theatre Company Present : The Water Tribe @ VS. Theatre Company - Review, retrieved 2020-02-25
  6. "THE WATER TRIBE". StageSceneLA. 2020-01-25. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  7. "Water Tribe, The". www.totaltheater.com. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  8. Straw, Joe (2020-01-25). "Joe Straw #9: The Water Tribe by Don Cummings". Joe Straw #9. Retrieved 2020-02-25.
  9. Gans, Andrew (2009-05-19). "Meryl Streep, Debra Monk and More Set for Reading of A Good Smoke". Playbill. Archived from the original on 2012-10-09. Retrieved 2012-01-06.
  10. Schulman, Michael (2009-08-24). "Mamma Mia - Meryl Streep's family of actors". The New Yorker. Retrieved 2012-01-06.
  11. Shade, Christopher X. (2018-10-12). "What Ever Happened to Cousin Mickey?". Cagibi. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  12. Kelly. "A Body of Work: The Tour | Rain Taxi". Retrieved 2019-11-23.
  13. Shade, Christopher X. (2019-04-30). "Book Passage: Don Cummings // The Body, the Self, a Book". Cagibi. Retrieved 2019-11-19.
  14. "The Coachella Review: The Fat of the Land". thecoachellareview.com. Retrieved 2019-03-03.
  15. "Int'l Cringe Fest Hosts Your Money Or Your Art Benefit 7/24, Awards Golden Pineapples". BroadwayWorld.com. 2009-06-24. Retrieved 2012-01-06.
  16. "Josh Bell's favorites from this year's Dam Short Film Festival - Las Vegas Weekly". lasvegasweekly.com. Retrieved 2019-03-23.
  17. Kelly. "A Body of Work: The Tour | Rain Taxi". Retrieved 2019-11-19.
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